


Dangerous

by idrilhadhafang



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angry Poe Dameron, Competent Amilyn Holdo, Fix-It, Gen, M/M, Past Poe Dameron/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Past Torture, Poe Dameron Needs A Hug, Star Wars: The Last Jedi Fix-It
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-12
Updated: 2019-09-12
Packaged: 2020-10-17 07:23:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,066
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20617199
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idrilhadhafang/pseuds/idrilhadhafang
Summary: In which Amilyn Holdo makes a different choice.





	Dangerous

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I own nothing. 
> 
> Author’s Notes: I thought this would be an interesting AU.

It was sometime during her speech that Holdo mentioned where she was going to take them next, and somehow, it made a lot of sense. 

_Crait. _Of course it made sense that they would go there. After all, Poe thought, the old Rebellion had some degree of history with the planet. The question was if they could actually outrun the First Order forever. Just because they had narrowly escaped from the First Order didn’t mean that the organization wouldn’t inevitably catch up with them. 

Holdo continued. “According to Larma D’Arcy, it won’t be an easy journey. The First Order is tracking us through hyperspace and has limited fuel. It hasn’t been confirmed, but it may have ties to the Empire’s plans to use hyperspace tracking during their war with the Rebellion. But,” and here, a slight smile came across her lips, “As proved with the Rebellion, we can all get creative when need be.” 

Creative was one word for it, actually. Poe couldn’t help but wonder if it was, at all, possible if Finn could help them out again. 

***

Holdo couldn’t say she liked the idea of putting Rose Tico with Finn after the former had tased the latter and called him a traitor (her job, no doubt, but she doubted she wanted to put two people who had gotten off to such an ugly start in close quarters). Or, for that matter, Poe Dameron. Good intentions or no, his rash decisions had cost them bombers under her care. Still, the plan was his idea, so Holdo could at least credit him for that. And they did need the best minds they could get. 

“And I do trust that there won’t be any physical altercations unless they’re against our enemies?” Holdo said evenly. 

Rose nodded. Holdo did feel at least marginally bad for chastising her, but she supposed that was what you had to do as a Vice Admiral.

Holdo softened her voice. “The more we fight, the easier it’ll be for the First Order to finish us off. They rely on our discord, on our discontent. Focus on the real enemy, and the fact we’re doing this for just about everyone, no matter what the cost.”

“Exactly,” Kaydel said. She’d also volunteered for the mission to Cantobight, and Holdo could only hope that these unlikely allies wouldn’t end up murdering each other. 

Holdo smiled. “We have a shuttle that can fly hopefully incognito to Cantobight. I wish I could go with you, all of you, but the fleet is low on fuel as is. If it wasn’t, I’d gladly come with you. I’ll keep communication open. If the mission goes awry...”

”We’ll run like hell,” Poe said. 

Holdo nodded. “Exactly.”

***

Boarding the shuttle, Poe had to admit that it was good to be in the piloting seat again. After Black One had been blown up (along with most of Blue Squadron, including Tallie. More reasons to hate Kylo Ren, as if torture wasn’t bad enough), he hadn’t thought that he would actually get to pilot again. 

“Ready to go?” Poe said. 

“Definitely,” Rose said. 

Typing in the coordinates for Cantobight, Poe watched as hyperspace formed around them, all but swallowing them in its depths. 

***

Getting to sleep should have been easy. More than easy, actually. They had a long while before they got to Cantobight. But that only made Poe stay even more awake. After all, if they didn’t get to Cantobight in time, if they were too late to stop the First Order from eliminating the fleet...

”Hey.” Finn’s voice, soft, sounding almost delicate in the interior of the shuttle. “You okay?”

Poe rubbed his temples. “Just...tired,” he said. “Maybe a little worried.”

Finn gripped his shoulder, squeezed it. It was one of those gestures that was reassuring, actually, something that Poe liked. It reminded Poe that Finn was there — in a way, Finn really was continuing to save him ever since they had escaped from the Finalizer together. 

“We’re right behind you,” Finn said. “Promise.”

Poe turned around, smiled. “Yeah.”

He turned back to the viewport where hyperspace seemed to be swirling into eternity. In a way, there was another reason he didn’t want to go to sleep, more selfish and raw than the fact that the whole galaxy was counting on them. They hadn’t had time to talk about it. But Poe still saw Kylo Ren’s mask all but looming over him. Almost avian. The monster, extracting memory after memory, piece after piece. Including Ben leaving, seeming to replay it over and over because he could...

”Poe?” Kaydel’s voice. “Y’know, BB-8 can watch over the cockpit from there...”

”Right. Okay.”

BB-8 beeped his assent, letting Poe know he could handle things from there.

Poe patted the droid’s dome. “Thanks, buddy.”

BB-8 beeped cheerfully. 

Poe headed down from the cockpit in that moment, towards one of the shuttle’s rooms. Sleep wasn’t going to come easy, or quickly. Not with his identity-less monster looming over him. 

It didn’t matter if Kylo Ren had an identity or not. What mattered, what really mattered, was getting the monster in jail. Monster. It was reassuring to simply call him a monster. It was easier to think of a monster who’d been scarred by one of his victims. Poe could only hope — and that was something he couldn’t say he’d liked — that it had hurt. That he got to look in the mirror and be reminded that he was evil, but not all-powerful. 

Poe couldn’t say he liked hating people. Or hoping they suffered. He supposed that Ren had taught him that. Put small things in him that threatened to grow big...

He wouldn’t give Ren that satisfaction. Just because Ren was ugly on the inside didn’t mean everyone else was like him. 

He rested his head on the pillow. Already, he could imagine the shadows on the wall coalescing into Ben. He could remember thinking that someday, somehow, the comm system would go off and Ben’s image would be there like he’d never left. Maybe Ben’s shuttle touching down, and Ben emerging from it. 

Anything. Any sign of Ben, no matter how faint. Even if Poe was jumping at ghosts, at mimicries. 

Poe closed his eyes, feeling exhaustion take him over. It had been a long day. But no matter what happened, he would do what he could to face the next day, and the next. 


End file.
